10 Basic Woodworking Tools Every New Furniture Maker Should Know

If you’re thinking of renovating, you’re not alone — 53% of homeowners across the United States believe that now is the right time to renovate their homes. In fact, 48% of homeowners made plans to remodel, build an addition, or build a custom home from 2013 to 2015 alone. To help prepare you for your upcoming project, here are 10 basic woodworking tools you should have.

Power jointer and thickness planer. This power tool is used to efficiently flatten the faces of rough or reclaimed lumber. This process is one of the first few steps for any furniture project. Compared to hand-held tools, the thickness planer is also a huge time-saver, since it’s able to trim boards to a consistent thickness while remaining flat on both surfaces.

Circular or table saw, for rough dimensioning. While a circular saw is good to use, if you have a good table saw, it can be even more useful. This is because you can use a table saw for a wide variety of joinery work. It is not just limited to dimensioning.

Hand saws, a router and two router bits. These are the tools commonly used for cross-cutting, straightening edges and cutting boards down to final width. The two router bits are a straight cut bit and a flush trimming bit.

A jigsaw is used for cutting curves. Coping saws is also useful for more detailed work.

Tools for marking. It’s is important to mark where changes need to be made, so that cutting is more precise. Tools used for marking include a combination square and tape measure, crayons, pencils, a knife and an awl.

A power drill and solid carbide router bits, as necessary. Solid carbide router bits are used for mortising, laminate trimming, and pattern cutting.

Rasps, files, a random-orbit sander, a smoothing plane and a block plane. These common woodworking tools are used for smoothing surfaces of all kinds for the final work. Be sure to have sharpening supplies for the plane blades.

Chisels and a wooden mallet.

A hammer and screwdrivers.

A Workmate, a puttering bench and clamps. In woodworking, it is important to have a good puttering bench and workmate in order to complete projects.

For the 88,000 cabinetmakers and bench carpenters in the U.S. today, many use the tools listed above to complete their projects. In addition to these tools, they also employ custom tooling companies to supply tool holders and cutting tools like solid carbide router bits. Before starting your next project, consider Active Tooling to help create lasting works of art for any space.